Breast cancer diagnosis nowadays may be based on multiple imaging modalities (x-ray mammography, ultrasound (US), and/or magnetic resonance (MR), for example). Frequently, a patient has more than one lesion, and multiple lesions may be visible in a single prior mammogram or MR exam. When an additional ultrasound image of the same patient is acquired, only coarse location information of the ultrasound image is stored, for example based on the location of the ultrasound probe. This location information is entered manually by a healthcare professional.
US 2007/0036402 A1 discloses a system for the detection of abnormalities in a medical image of a subject. With this system, x-ray mammographic and ultrasound images of the breast are captured to form an examination bundle. Candidate masses are identified in the x-ray mammographic image, using techniques known to those skilled in the art. A correspondence is established between the x-ray mammographic image and the ultrasound image by identifying the region or regions in the ultrasound image corresponding to any identified candidate masses in the x-ray mammographic image.